Less battery life for PSP-3000, says Sony

By Robert Purchese Published 1 September, 2008

Brighter screen will eat more power.

Sony US marketeer John Koller has said the PSP-3000 will use up energy faster than the existing handheld model.

"Battery life will decrease by a small amount; it's material, but it's about 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes. And that's because there's a little bit of a larger power draw with the brighter screen," Koller told GameSpot.

"That's going to be offset because we're going to have the extended life battery that's still available for consumers, so we're still going to get the eight-to-ten hours out of that battery. The battery that comes with the PSP will now be right around three-and-a-half to four hours."

The PSP-3000, which was unveiled at the Leipzig Games Convention last month, has five-times more screen contrast to play with as well as a wider array of colours. Koller said the screen is central to the PSP experience.

The PSP-3000 has a built-in microphone too, something prompted by the success of SOCOM multiplayer games and Skype in the US.

Koller went on to say that while there may be some compatibility issues with the AC adapter, all other existing PSP accessories should work just fine. For three-and-a-half to four hours, cough.

Manufacture of the existing PSP will cease some time this month, we're told, with the first of the PSP-3000 bundles - Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, silver PSP-3000 - due in Europe on 15th October.

Following this will be a black PSP-3000 and 4GB memory entertainment pack bundle in "early November". Both bundles cost EUR 199.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TONYgr #1 4 years ago

    the next models battery will last 2 and a half hours.are they serius?and stupid?someone answer me please!

  • bad09 #2 4 years ago

    What is it with Sony making there later models worst than before *cough* PS3 *cough*

    / makes note not to get the 3000 model in a few months when replacing his PSP.....

  • Zelos #3 4 years ago

    Isn't that a bit pointless, then? I generally don't use the highest brightness setting on my PSP because it uses up the battery too fast. So I could choose to sacrifice battery life for brightness with my original PSP already.

  • miiiguel #4 4 years ago

    The very 1st portable system designed to never leave home.

  • Wyrm #5 4 years ago

    'Koller said the screen is central to the PSP experience.'

    Well the software catalogue certainly isn't! Ho ho!

  • JonFE #6 4 years ago

    Is the extended life battery actually available? I haven't seen it for sale around my parts...

  • LazyDan #7 4 years ago

    Excellent! This is just the kick the PSP needed - now people don't have to wait so long in between being able to use their officially licensed PSP chargers! Sony had done their best to provide the shortest time possible in between being able to use these anyway, but it's fantastic that they're managed to reduce the wait further.

  • Sandbox #8 4 years ago

    I see what you did there - progress indeed, or perhaps they have quite a few of those extended batteries that are not selling, this should do the trick.

  • ghearoid #9 4 years ago

    Gobshites.

  • Widge #10 4 years ago

    I love this update, Sony are clearly better than Nintendo.

  • octo #11 4 years ago

    Why not just include the extended life battery with every PSP? It's uneconomical you say? Well fuck you then, say I!

  • Kazzahdrane #12 4 years ago

    I had a Game Gear when I was young. You couldn't take it out as the batteries just died. Fortunately you could just buy more AAs.

    I think the PSP-4000 will use 10 AA batteries and you won't be able to use rechargeable ones.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #13 4 years ago

    Huh? Which ten-hour extended battery is this?

  • Widge #14 4 years ago

    Screen comparison:

    http://i2 9.photobucket.com/albums/c263/T...

  • Waffleaber #15 4 years ago

    "The very 1st portable system designed to never leave home."

    Nope that was the Atari Lynx, not once did the batterys last the two hour holiday trip to devon and it was massive.

    Anyway this is terrible, I was tempted to upgrade from my fat psp but when my most played games on it are RPG's less battery life is hardly a plus.

  • Stuz359 #16 4 years ago

    No wonder the DS beats the PSP in sales. DS has 15-19 hours battery life on lowest brightness settings and still manages 5-8 hours on highest. This is what you need from a portable gaming console.

  • Gaol #17 4 years ago

    He mentions the extended battery however as far as I was aware, this had been withdrawn from retail a month or so back. It came with a back cover for the PSP2000 to get the battery life above 8 hours - of course you then had an unsightly bulge at one end.

    Presumably he means it will be rereleased with PSP3000 backs? In which case, it's another accessory which isn't forwards compatable.

  • spazmo #18 4 years ago

    Is this new screen still a blurfest?

  • SeesThroughAll #19 4 years ago

    This is stupid, if they can't at least keep the same battery life, they shouldn't even bother...

    I'm more than happy with my Slim the way it is... one less reason to upgrade, obviously.

    @spazmo: The new screen has the response time halved, so ghosting should be completely gone.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/08 @ 13:10

  • Geowolf #20 4 years ago

    "The battery that comes with the PSP will now be right around three-and-a-half to four hours."

    Cool! My Atari Lynx mkII now has credibility over another portable. (Pity it took another 20 years to get such a bad portable battery life, Atari could have been in with a chance now)

  • chronom4n #21 4 years ago

    3 odd hours, come on! someone is having a laff. the psp is now becoming a joke in my opinion. this reminds of the battery life issues that plagued the sega handheld many years ago. good machine but shit battery life.

  • jonsaan #22 4 years ago

    extended battery for the current slim and lite lasts a lot longer than my DS.